How is track welded together?

I know almost nothing about welding, but I've wondered how they weld steel coaster track together. Also, why isn't the paint job on the track ruined when it is welded?

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Intelligence is a God given gift: Know how to use it.

carefully

They paint the track after I believe.

NO they don't, do they? Most of the track you see delivered is already painted. They might paint over the welds, but I'm no expert.

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LeWiS

Some track isn't welded. Intamin is bolted together I believe.

B and M track is welded and then the joints painted afterwards. If the rails are painted.

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All I need is 4.5 million bucks and a half a mile long sliver of land and maybe someone could build me my very own Shivering Timbers. ;)

If you look closely at the bolts on MF you can see little white lines that have been painted across the nuts. This is so that they can easily be visually inspected to see if the nuts have slipped and are loose. I would think that most Intamin coasters are like this.

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The Other Siebert

Most B&M track is bolted together (the box beam). Not sure about the actual rails though.. it may be a groove fitting or welds.

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the member formerly known as MisterX

I did some welding but not much so I'm no expert.

I assume that they would weld all the way around the two pieces of track, chip the slag off (the brownish black stuff you get when you weld), take a grinder and grind it down to the the same diameter as the track, then prime and paint the track.

The paint would probably only burn off 6 inches past the weld if that.

What companies weld track pieces together now anyway? I thought most just bolt them together now.

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Visits to Knoebels in 2002: 10

Shop welding is completed prior to sandblasting and painting. It the fabricator is smart he tapes off any areas that will be affected by by field welding. Contact areas where the track is joined by bolted connections are also generally left unpainted as paint in a bolted connection hurts its strength and precision. After the coaster is assembled touch up painting is done on welds, nuts, bolts, etc.

Pretty much all coaster track is shop welded with the field connections bolted.

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 9/23/2002. ***

No modern coastertrack is welded !

The reason you have 'ugly spots' on B&M coasters is because B&M 'scours' the track between two track segments. They also put a layer of wax on the rails before the first test runs.

*** This post was edited by Belgian on 9/23/2002. ***

I assume by that you mean field welded. All steel strack is welded in the shop. Field assembly is then by bolting. Of course, there has been a lot of welding done in the field on X and Wicked Twister due to problems.

Being a welder, the track is weld in the shop via mig, or tig, never stick weld. You can weld over the paint but it makes a really sickening smell. The paint does not weaken the welds either. ALL coaster track is 1st bolted together, then it has anti spatter spray applied, (spatter is what remains after welding and sometimes has to be chipped off or even ground off.) the track is sometimes ground around the welds, but thte welds themselves are never ground. That would weaken the welds. A good welder who knows his mig machine and who knows the proper heat and wire settings will have very little spatter. But to get back to the track, after it's welded and cooled, a anti rust coating is applied, then the primer is applied, then the 1st coat and second coats are applied. This is in shop and also in the field, when the track is connected together. We followed the manufactuers specs to the letter when we iron workers got called to go on site and work for the manufactuers Arrow and Vekoma. By the way for anyone that wants to get into welding, take the classes offered in school or if you can find a manufactuer that does welding, try to get in there. You can usually learn how to weld at a good fabricating plant. Also, when the track is painted and then welded, the paint is ruined in the spot where it was welded. All that has to be done is the area has to be cleaned with a wire brush of all the spatter, then painted.

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stoogemanmoe

*** This post was edited by stoogemanmoe on 9/23/2002. ***

How common are robotic welding machines in the shop? It seems that Intamin track is very time consuming to manufacture, and perhaps they've invested in automation to speed up that process while reducing cost. I've seen robotic welders in action (Chevy plant) and they're pretty amazing. If I remember right, Cedar Point's Magnum XL-200 track was welded, rather than bolted. Does the traditional Arrow hyper/looper (Viper, Steel Phantom, Great American Scream Machine) use welds rather than bolts to connect the track?

-Seth

No one seems to know much about Intamin's manufacturing process. That's not entirely surprising either, because their "trade secrets" are essentially what prevented Millennium Force from being the focus of the "maknig of a coaster" show on Discovery (they used Steel Dragon). Intamin apparently didn't want any cameras in the fab facility.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

I run robotic welders everyday. My plant makes the seat frames for Honda's and the assemblies are very complicated. If welding by hand it would take a skilled welder 20 minutes as it is it takes a robot running two welders less then a minute.

Honestly I don't think it would be possible for them to do the welding. The robots are in no way dexterous enough to move around all the cross pieces on Intamin track. It actually would not take as long to weld as you would think. 1 whole section could likely be done in a couple hours. With a lot of welders going thats not much time. Large scale assemblies are rarely done with Robots as the jigs have to be enormous. With all the different shapes that coaster track takes on I really doubt it would be done robotically. It wwould take longer to build the correct jig then it would to simply use a regular welding process.

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All I need is 4.5 million bucks and a half a mile long sliver of land and maybe someone could build me my very own Shivering Timbers. ;)

Stoogemanmoe, I'm an Ironworker too! I'm mainly a rodbuster so my welding knowledge is limited to what I learned in apprentice class.

I'm out of Local 404 in Harrisburg, PA!

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Visits to Knoebels in 2002: 10

*** This post was edited by coasterpunk on 9/23/2002. ***

Coaster track is BOLTED together on the spines. The rails have small ends sticking off, which fit in to the previous or next piece. Some sections are welded together, like the last piece of track between two sections.

Until fairly recently, all the Arrow coasters were welded together in the field. Look at the CP Corkscrew, for instance: there are NO bolted connections on that one except where the supports attach to the footers. On the later Arrow coasters (Magnum, for instance), the track spine is bolted together, but the rails are welded. On even later Arrow coasters, a variety of methods have been used to bolt track together...Steel Phantom, for instance, had adjacent track ties butted together and bolted, and bolting eyes were attached to the outboard surfaces of the rails.

Vekoma has always bolted their rails together using a puzzle-like arrangement with two bolts running transversely through the rail from the non-wheel side. I believe Schwarzkopf uses an alignment sleeve inside the rail to hold the sections in alignment, then the track sections are bolted together (not entirely unlike the coaster toy being described in another thread).

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

stoogemanmoe:

Don't weld for me if you are welding through the paint. I'll reject you welds. To much carbon pickup which can really mess up the metallurgy. Also metallic content of the paint especially zinc primers can cause trouble.

Agreed jim, if we ever have to touch up welds on our seats after they have been painted we must always sand the paint off first. The surrounding paint burns off and smells awful.

If we welded over the paint and then tested the weld, it would break everytime.

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All I need is 4.5 million bucks and a half a mile long sliver of land and maybe someone could build me my very own Shivering Timbers. ;)